From poems to arias: Rising mezzo Cadence Chung making her mark

Cadence Chung is one of the talents at this year's New Zealand Opera School. Photo / Karen Hughes

Wellington has always been home for Cadence Chung until this year, when she was selected to study her Masters at TANZOS, the opera studio at the University of Waikato.

The mezzo-soprano is in Whanganui this week attending the New Zealand Opera School.

In Wellington she has a part-time job as an announcer for the Concert programme, where her boss Clarissa Dunn heard her and decided her voice was perfect for radio.

Music was Chung’s great love as a child, from singing all day to wanting to play an instrument.

“My mother was amazing, she got me taught piano and when the teacher said I should have singing lessons, my mum drove me miles across town to a singing teacher every week,” she said.

To add to her talents, Chung writes poetry and her book Mad Diva, a collection of her poems, was published last year.

Her mezzo-soprano voice has gained her many accolades already.

Opera is her chosen path and she hopes to go to Germany and be accepted into a young artists programme as an intern.

Chung is an active concert singer and has performed in the choruses of NZ Opera, Wellington Opera, Days Bay Opera and Wellington Comic Opera, as well as many of her original theatrical and concert productions.

“Music is absolutely my life.”